Book subscription boxes are everywhere these days, and almost all of them have something about them that speaks to a certain kind of reader. Some focus on a genre; others lean into our romantic adoration of books. Secondhand Bookshelf does something entirely novel (pun intended) and unique. Aside from a treat for yourself, they also …
Literature
Whilst reading Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, the elephant in the room was the British education system. In school, Brits are taught about the following areas of British history: 1066, the Tudors, the Black Death, the industrial revolution, World War II. No Black British history books to be seen. British …
Spending my twenties living in China and Japan, one of the first things I came to appreciate was the richly diverse ways in which cultures can approach art. And, by art, I mean painting, literature, music, even cooking. What we think we know about painting in the West (renaissance art, expressionism, impressionism etc) is, despite …
Japan has provided the world with a generous spectrum of books in translation. Almost every genre and style of book has a solid handful of Japanese books in translation. But how about Japanese children’s books? For young readers in the West, what innovative and magical Japanese books are available in translation? Well, quite a few …
Nick Bradley’s Tokyo is an enormous and vivid tapestry, with each thread revealing the life of a person who has lived and worked there, who has shed tears and blood for Tokyo, who struggled through their darkest days and celebrated their greatest victories in Japan’s great metropolis. The Cat and the City offers us its …
If you love Japanese history, landscape or simply just in love with Tokyo then The Bells of Old Tokyo is a must-read. A lot of us who devour media like things to be put in brackets: as a music-lover, I need to know what sub-genre of heavy metal an album comfortably sits in before I …
These books about mental health are a great start if you’re looking to learn more about yourself or hear from someone who has experienced similar feelings. Mental health is very much a catch-all term in the same way that physical health is. Just as physical health issues range from cramps to cancer, mental health issues …
Arid Dreams, the much-anticipated collection by Duanwad Pinwana, is, remarkably, (outside of academia), her first time being published in English internationally. That is, along with her novel Bright – released at the same time as this collection. After reading these stories, I’m so grateful to Mui Poopoksakul for translating so elegantly and beautifully, and for …
Hekla’s father named her after a volcano. Four years after she was born, the volcano after which she was named erupted, and her volcano-obsessed father took Hekla in his Jeep to see the eruption. The sight forever stoked a burning fire in her, turning Hekla into a young woman who wanted nothing in the world …
In his book China in Ten Words, author Yu Hua discusses in detail the multiple plights of the writers and artists of China. Censorship, legal battles, ownership; so many of a writer’s rights and freedoms can be put at risk, and they are on a daily basis. It doesn’t matter if these are the best …